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NEXT GAME:no idea
Sometime in August
Kick off unknown pm
No idea where
Definitely the Championship
Rovers v Uddersfield - Saturday 5th Nov
- Thread starter 1SimonGarner
- Start date
Robin
Senior Member
How he can be before Dack in this team is a mystery.
Barmitzvah Boy
Global winner of the 2021 Christmas Quiz 👊🤩🤩
Brilliant goal but please pass the ball Ben…..
www.skysports.com
Blackburn Rovers 1-0 Huddersfield Town | Championship highlights
Watch highlights of the Sky Bet Championship match between Blackburn Rovers and Huddersfield Town.
After the disastrous results of this week where the Rovers meekly and abjectly surrendered to lowly Coventry whilst the Dingles overcame a stubborn Rotherham with two injury time goals after twice going behind we Rovers fans were faced with the unpalatable possibility of going 8 points behind our great rivals. I was eagerly anticipating a Sheff Utd win at Bramhall Lane and the Rovers cruising to a comfortable victory over a Huddersfield side currently languishing at the bottom of the Championship pile. It panned out as I foresaw but definitely not in the manner that I expected! I was dismayed as the dingles went in1-2 up at half time but subsequent action saw Sheff Utd bang in 3 in the sec ond half to win 5-2 and put an end to Burnley’s long unbeaten run and to replace us as 2nd in the table. Only now for the Rovers to despatch the bottom club and it would be happy days. Suffice to say it never happened! On a pitch where the ball was picking up a track of water from the kick off and against a Huddersfield side obviously short of confidence the Rovers went 1 up though an excellent BBD strike in the first half before then shrinking tortoise like into their carapace after HT and ending up desperately defending their slim advantage! What gives? Huddersfield were there for the taking so why not go for the jugular and get 2 or even 3 up whilst the going is good?
Seems this is not the JDT way doesn’t it? In fairness the Rovers could and should have gone 2 up were it not for a linesman flag denying Szmodics (excusable) and a couple of greedy pieces of play by BBD (inexcusable) who elected to shoot from narrow angles and by doing so denying first Szmodics and then Dolan who were both better placed to wrap the points up. Still 3 points is 3 points and who am I to criticise that?
Kaminski... 7 Steady Eddie again.
Brittain... 7 Sponsors MoM and gave a decent performance. Often left exposed by his teammates as Huddersfield targeted our right hand side.
Hyam... 6 Not at his best but linked well with Ayala and especially in our desperate late defending.
Ayala... 7 Headed a lot of clearances and spread play across the back with commendable one touch passing.
Pickering.. 6 A decent left footed player behind has to help support BBD’s attacking. A wonderful delivery for BBD to score the goal.
Morton..7 Provided a touch of class to the midfield again.
Travis... 7 Stiffened up the middle of the park after replacing Adam Wharton.
Hedges.. 7 Made a number of driving runs forward.
Szmodics...7 Plenty of effort as is becoming the norm from our false centre fwd.
Gallagher... 5 Not his best day and needs to get himself up to speed.
BBD.... 6 Scored after finishing well but a number of instances of poor play and selfish episodes marred his overall performance.
Subs
Wharton (Gallagher 67) 6 A strange substitution as it stiffened up the defence but simultaneously damaged our attacking instincts.
Dolan (Hedges 80) 5 Obviously turned to to provide energy up top but on this occasion it didn’t work. All too frequently chose the wrong option and gave possession away cheaply. Would Garrett or Dack have been a better option? I definitely think so.
Vale (Szmodics 80) 6 Tried hard and did bring some options to his teammates.
Manager JDT... 5 Selected a strong first team but somehow a lack of invention, determination and direction bedevilled his selection. We should have swept a disjointed and injury hit Huddersfield aside but it didn’t happen and as the game wore on they grew in confidence and could have shared the points but for some desperate last ditch defending.
Referee James Linington 7 A decent match from the man in the middle who in the past has been more than a little hit and miss.
Seems this is not the JDT way doesn’t it? In fairness the Rovers could and should have gone 2 up were it not for a linesman flag denying Szmodics (excusable) and a couple of greedy pieces of play by BBD (inexcusable) who elected to shoot from narrow angles and by doing so denying first Szmodics and then Dolan who were both better placed to wrap the points up. Still 3 points is 3 points and who am I to criticise that?
Kaminski... 7 Steady Eddie again.
Brittain... 7 Sponsors MoM and gave a decent performance. Often left exposed by his teammates as Huddersfield targeted our right hand side.
Hyam... 6 Not at his best but linked well with Ayala and especially in our desperate late defending.
Ayala... 7 Headed a lot of clearances and spread play across the back with commendable one touch passing.
Pickering.. 6 A decent left footed player behind has to help support BBD’s attacking. A wonderful delivery for BBD to score the goal.
Morton..7 Provided a touch of class to the midfield again.
Travis... 7 Stiffened up the middle of the park after replacing Adam Wharton.
Hedges.. 7 Made a number of driving runs forward.
Szmodics...7 Plenty of effort as is becoming the norm from our false centre fwd.
Gallagher... 5 Not his best day and needs to get himself up to speed.
BBD.... 6 Scored after finishing well but a number of instances of poor play and selfish episodes marred his overall performance.
Subs
Wharton (Gallagher 67) 6 A strange substitution as it stiffened up the defence but simultaneously damaged our attacking instincts.
Dolan (Hedges 80) 5 Obviously turned to to provide energy up top but on this occasion it didn’t work. All too frequently chose the wrong option and gave possession away cheaply. Would Garrett or Dack have been a better option? I definitely think so.
Vale (Szmodics 80) 6 Tried hard and did bring some options to his teammates.
Manager JDT... 5 Selected a strong first team but somehow a lack of invention, determination and direction bedevilled his selection. We should have swept a disjointed and injury hit Huddersfield aside but it didn’t happen and as the game wore on they grew in confidence and could have shared the points but for some desperate last ditch defending.
Referee James Linington 7 A decent match from the man in the middle who in the past has been more than a little hit and miss.
Old Darwen Blue
Prediction Champion 2021, 2022 & 2023
Wow what a pass from Pickering for Bens goal! In fairness BBD does look for a pass to a colleague and can clearly be seen doing so in the next attempt on the highlights following his goal. He’s possibly fed up with squaring it for one of our young strikers to bugger up.Brilliant goal but please pass the ball Ben…..
Blackburn Rovers 1-0 Huddersfield Town | Championship highlights
Watch highlights of the Sky Bet Championship match between Blackburn Rovers and Huddersfield Town.
Onwards and upwards, second eh and some still moan.
Barmitzvah Boy
Global winner of the 2021 Christmas Quiz 👊🤩🤩
Wrexham showing us how to pass the ball around with speed and accuracy, most of it is forwards rather than backwards or sideways.
blueandwhitehalves
Senior Member
I think thats a bit harsh personally. Wrexham have massively outspent the rest of their league over the last couple of seasons, whilst we're massively outspent by many Championship teams.
Keeping possession in non-threatening areas isn't without its uses. Its a type of defending (given the opposition can't attack without the ball) and it can also kill the opposition's momentum at certain times in the game.
No matter how long we're in the top 2, this is a mid-table squad and should be judged accordingly IMO. Unfortunately it increasingly isn't being judged like that given the manager is now being criticised even when we win. JDT's over-achievement seems to be making a rod for his own back.
Keeping possession in non-threatening areas isn't without its uses. Its a type of defending (given the opposition can't attack without the ball) and it can also kill the opposition's momentum at certain times in the game.
No matter how long we're in the top 2, this is a mid-table squad and should be judged accordingly IMO. Unfortunately it increasingly isn't being judged like that given the manager is now being criticised even when we win. JDT's over-achievement seems to be making a rod for his own back.
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Can you explain though why we wasted so much time keeping possession along the back line when we were 1 down at Coventry?
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Old Darwen Blue
Prediction Champion 2021, 2022 & 2023
Because JDT said so and he’s the boss who appears to be getting everything right at the moment?
blueandwhitehalves
Senior Member
I was listening to a rare interesting piece on TalkSport a bit back where they were discussing the value of having a plan B in football. The argument against it was that plan Bs don't work as often as people think and therefore in the long-term its more valuable to spend all your time on the training ground and in games perfecting plan A.
Perfecting anything requires constant practice and repeition, and for something so unnatural to most Championship teams as passing it out from the back even more so. And that practice is more valuable if its done under different conditions to build resilience in the system, i.e. when in front, when behind, in hostile atmospheres, in quiet atmospheres, in crunch 6-pointers, in nothing games, against an opposition press, when they stand off etc.
Obviously the intention against Coventry wouldn't have been to time waste (even though that was the end result) but it would have been to stick to the manager's script of patient possession football waiting for someone on the opposition to switch off and lose their man.
I always say with football managers, I'm not qualified to judge them on their methods but anyone is qualified to judge them on their results. JDT's results are top drawer so far.
Except for last week at Coventry
Except we've lost eight matches already.
blueandwhitehalves
Senior Member
True but we've won 12. A managerial win percentage of about 40% is considered good. Hughes was a legend at Rovers with 43.6%. JDT is currently at 60%!
steve w
Senior Member
Hard point to argue against
Old Darwen Blue
Prediction Champion 2021, 2022 & 2023
Can’t win them all?